A homeowner thought the sound made by a pair of would-be thieves trying to hot wire her scooter was an animal in the garden.

The woman, who was at home with her dog, went to look out the window after the ‘clanking’ noise had gone on for more than 10 minutes, Oxford Crown Court heard on Thursday.

She peered out of the window to see two men running from her moped. Prosecutor Matthew Knight said a plastic panel on the motorcycle had been damaged and attempts had been made to hot wire the vehicle.

Appearing before the court via video link from HMP Bullingdon, Kai Sawyer, 24, admitted being one of the men involved in the attempted theft on February 25 last year. He pleaded not guilty to a separate allegation of burglary, with the plea accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Sawyer, whose DNA was found on the handlebars of the moped, had 20 convictions for 36 offences and was currently recalled to prison on licence, having been given 17 months in January for wounding.

His plea to attempted theft on Thursday afternoon also put him in breach of a conditional discharge for criminal damage and failing to attend court.

Mitigating, Peter du Feu said client’s criminal record showed ‘quite clearly’ a link with drug addiction. “He desperately wants to change his ways,” the barrister said.

The defendant had been released on licence in July 2021 then arrested, charged and remanded the following month on the latest charges, which where more than a year old. When he was out of prison on licence he’d got work with Deliveroo and had resumed contact with his children.

Recorder Emily Formby QC sentenced Sawyer, who had been living at a bail hostel in Old Windsor when he was arrested in August, to eight weeks’ imprisonment.

The jail time will be served at the same time - or concurrently - as his current sentence for wounding.

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